10:10AM: Yesterday, while meeting with the media outside the NHL offices, Gary Bettman confirmed that the NHL needs to start by the middle of January if they want to have a season, “we have said that we need to drop the puck by 1/19 if we want to have a 48 game season. We don’t want to play anything less than that.”

Damien Cox though, in the Toronto Star, doesn’t believe that no deal by January 11th, with a week for training camp, would cancel the season. Cox says that there is “not a chance” the season is cancelled this early and reminds that the 2005 season wasn’t “snuffed out” until February 16th.

Doug MacLean said on Sportsnet last night that both sides in the room understand that they are finally up against the deadline.

Adam Rotter: This is the one thing that I keep coming back to. Do the players, Donald Fehr, really believe that the end is coming in ten days or is this just a power play from the owners? If they don’t think the deadline is real and Gary Bettman and the owners do….then we won’t have a season. The NHL has already complained of negotiating against itself and I can’t imagine they will want to keep doing that, which is what will happen, if they extend past the January 11th deadline.